Tag: the streets

Like only a handful of others before her; Bob Dylan, The Streets and Saul Williams, Kate Tempest blurs the line between poet and musician, this was put to brilliant effect on her acclaimed debut album Everybody Down and is once again in evidence here on Let Them Eat Chaos.

Part of what makes Tempest’s work so enjoyable is her ability to tell a story and maintain a cohesive narrative, all too regularly failing at one of these is the downfall of a concept album. But with concept album number 2 under her belt it is clear for Kate this isn’t a problem. Let Them Eat Chaos opens with two tracks which paint the scene and setting for the story we are to bear witness to, the setting being London in the here and now and more specifically a street familiar to the everyman. Let Them Eat Chaos is the story of the common man and woman in a socially and personally chaotic time. More than this it is the story of how our individual dramas often prevent us from seeing the impending greater storm that is just around the corner, in the case of Let Them Eat Chaos the storm is one of social disorder, xenophobia, the banking crisis and political corruption.

Each track on Let Them Eat Chaos tells the individual story of a character suffering with personal strife whether that be dissatisfaction, grief, love, loss, work, drink and drugs etc each character is awake at 4.18am traumatised in some respect by the thoughts of their own lives. Tempest tells each tale compassionately and passionately leaving the listener with the thought that there’s a little bit of me in each one of these people. Relatability really is one of the triumphs of Let Them Eat Chaos, the events and stories told will resonate with almost any millennial out there. Tempest has adopted an omnipresent approach to her generation looking at its problems from above and then sketching them out with stunning lyrical dexterity for all to observe. Of course this is partially the point of Let The Eat Chaos to show that we are not alone in our problems and that even within difficulties there exists commonality.

The final track of Let Them Eat Chaos sees a literal and figurative storm break and each of our 7 characters leaving their various houses to observe the spectacle. Tempest is of course stating very clearly for the listener that sometimes despite our problems there is a greater storm which unites us. The imagery used is beautiful and her point is adeptly made. Adding further strength is the fact that Tempest doesn’t offer the listener any solutions to the various problems on show, this is not preaching to the choir but a state of the nation address. Let Them Eat Chaos says here we are, this is my strife and this is our society. The effect is refreshing in a time where every other musician is saying who you should vote for, who you should save, what celebrity is it and who is not, instead telling you how to think Tempest has painted an overview and left the choice up to you (though an awareness exists of what Kate thinks too).

Let Them Eat Chaos is a brilliant and complex piece of story-telling which only further cements Kate Tempest’s position as a reluctant voice of her confused, lost, embittered and embattled millennial generation.